


Villainesses Must Stick Together

by ConvenientAlias



Category: I reincarnated into an otome game as a villainess with only destruction flags
Genre: Diary/Journal, F/F, F/M, Humor, Parallel Universes, Unrequited Crush, as seen in canon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 05:30:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17115332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Katerina Claes is enjoying--or at least enduring--an uneventful summer when Prince Jared shows up at her door with a Katerina from an alternate universe. And says this Katerina will be staying on the Claes manor! What an outrage. Surely there is only room for one.





	Villainesses Must Stick Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straightforwardly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/gifts).



Dear Diary,

An odd event has occurred today, quite outside the normal. Especially since it is currently summer vacation, I had not expected any excitement—things have been terribly boring. I have, as you know, been longing for a visit from Prince Jared, who has been rudely ignoring me ever since he met that presumptuous peasant Maria Campbell. Well, today I did get a visit from him, but the circumstances were such that it has not greatly improved my mood or my situation.

I spotted him out the window from a distance, riding down the road with a small entourage. Even from a distance, I could tell there was a woman riding with him on his horse, right up on the saddle behind him. And I could tell it was not Maria—thank goodness, that wretch has currently taken up with Nikol Ascart and troubles me no longer! But another woman was still just as great a threat. I ran down to meet them at the gate, ready to respond to the threat. And when he dismounted and gently helped her off her horse—I have never seen Jared behave so gentlemanly—I saw, to my great astonishment, that the woman was identical to me!

Yes, diary, identical. The same red-brown hair and the same barely-hidden scar on her forehead. The same blue eyes with those wicked corners that have always caused me so much grief. Even her clothes were the same fashions Anne always buys for me. I was bewildered.

“Miss Katerina Claes,” Jared said, with a more respectful bow than usual, “meet Miss Katerina Claes…2.0.”

Of course I demanded he explain the meaning of this announcement.

“Katerina 2.0 arrived at the royal castle today through a portal,” he said cheerfully. “Apparently she’s from a realm adjacent to ours and was summoned here through some witchery our head mage was doing. She’s like you, if you were completely different. This other world seems to be idyllic.”

The woman who looked like me sputtered and said, “W-well, we’re not really all that…”

“We are working on a way to send her back, but until then, she’s a Claes and we leave her in your care. Ta, then.”

And then—horror of all horrors—Jared kissed her hand on the knuckles, despite the fact that I am from his world and am his fiancé and he has never been so gracious to me. The other Katerina accepted this with a laugh that was quiet but sounded completely smug and assured. Never have I been so humiliated, and in my own house!

Of course my parents find it all very fascinating, and they have made up a room for her, and they tell me we are to practice magic together and she is to have meals with us and be treated just like me because “if such a thing were to happen to you, dear, we would hope the other Claes family would accept you as a daughter as well.” I personally think it’s a pointless hypothetical because I don’t mess around with portals, as this Katerina has reluctantly admitted she was doing. Still, it seems we will be stuck with her, and I will be keeping a close eye out because she has a wicked look in her eyes and I don’t trust her a jot.

Yours in Outrage,

The Real Katerina Claes

 

Dear Diary,

The new, different, and decidedly less respectable Katerina is still here and I have already had just about enough of her besmearing our name and face. Today she came to breakfast with her dress already half-covered in dirt and sweat. My parents only looked at each other and asked her most politely why.

“Oh,” she said, “back home I like gardening a lot, so I thought it would be bad to get out of practice while I’m away. I’m not very good at it to begin with.”

If she’s so bad at it, then it seems like it would be better for her to keep far away from our garden and not ruin the labors of our elite and well-paid gardening team. But my parents just chuckled and said that the foibles of another world were not to be understood.

So I said, “It’s not very proper for a young lady to garden. You’ll ruin your dress like that, not to mention your reputation. If anyone were to hear I was gardening, I’d be a laughingstock at school.”

And she just gave me this look. And she said, “Wow, it’s really hard to be raised as a proper young lady with no knowledge of another life, isn’t it? Geez…with no one around to support you, not even any internet…I could have easily ended up a slave of the patriarchy!”

I gaped at this. What’s a patriarchy? And how dare she insinuate that I, a member of a noble house, am equivalent to a slave?

She squeezed my arm condescendingly and said, “It’s really okay to garden, though. If you want to join me, you can.”

As you can imagine, dear diary, I did not want to join her in the slightest, and, in fact, I did not.

This is not the end of her idiocy. Her next act was to insist on Keith—my stupid stepbrother, dear diary, if you remember—to join us at tea. Of course Mother and Father acted like they were fine with it, even though Mother’s lips were going white. Katerina spent the whole time asking Keith about his life, his school year, his recreational activities—not talking to us at all, though of course I didn’t want to talk to her anyway. Surprisingly Keith actually responded to her and told her anything she wanted to know, though he still was quiet about it and didn’t meet her eyes. He hasn’t spoken to me since we were children, because for some reason he thinks he’s better than me because I was a little outspoken when we were young and he’s popular at school. But a few words from her and he blossoms like a damn rose.

They proceeded to spend the entire afternoon digging in the garden because my parents still refused to rebuke her for her unladylike activities. I watched her out my window. The two of them having such a good time, and me left bored and ignored in my own house…I cannot stand for this much longer!

I have decided on a good prank to teach this girl her place. I have sent Anne to town with the instructions to buy me a nice fake snake, the kind you see in toy shops. Then, tonight, I will put it in her bed, and when she wakes everyone up and bothers the household with her screaming, we will see if they are still so enamored with a little coward.

Your Clever Conspirator,

The Better Katerina Claes

 

Dear Diary,

It has been a few days, but nothing has improved. That Katerina Claes is still here, and she is still just as impertinent as ever.

You may remember I was planning to scare her with a fake snake. Well, that plan backfired horribly! She made no ruckus at all, but the next morning, she took me aside after breakfast and pulled it out of her pocket.

She said to me in a mock-earnest voice, “Miss Claes, I hadn’t expected such an insightful gift from you! However did you know I’d been worried about it?”

“What do you mean?” I said, crossing my arms. “I’ve never seen that toy before.”

Katerina gave me a long look, and then she winked. “I see. You don’t want to be in trouble in case I really do need to use it against Prince Jared. Plausible deniability. That’s very clever. But don’t worry, I’d never betray you. Villainess girls need to stick together.”

She then nodded aggressively and stuck the snake back in her pocket. “But really, I was feeling very uncomfortable without a snake with me. This Prince Jared is so different from my own, and his aura…it’s very threatening, isn’t it? Miss Claes, you live such a dangerous life!”

I have no idea why she chose to connect my prank with Jared. But being confused and overwhelmed, I just tossed my head and said, “Well, as the Claes heiress, I have gotten used to it. And I suppose we should stick together.” Though…calling us villainess girls? I have no idea why she would call us that. I am an upstanding citizen of this country, a good daughter, and very popular among my peers. No one would ever call me a villainess, though I would call her a villainess, for barging into our world and my organized life like this.

Soon she can go back to her own world and be a hero once again.

But at any rate, I was inclined to be lenient on her bad manners and gardening after she was so polite with me, except she has proved herself to be a scoundrel in other ways too, this week. For example, she continues to hang around Keith and pester him, and he is starting to get jumpy and unpredictable. This evening, teasing him, I called him stupid as I often do, and he said to my face that I was being rude! And then, he actually smiled and laughed at me. I could not believe it.

But worse than her attitude towards Keith is her attitude towards Jared—or rather, Jared’s attitude towards her.

Jared has been visiting every other day, coming for tea or to go out for a ride. But inevitably, he only talks to Katerina, and by Katerina, I mean that sweet imposter who plagues my life rather than myself.

“What is your fiancé like, Katerina?” I heard him ask her.

“Oh…he is a good guy, I guess. Obviously he’s a lot like you, always scheming things.”

“Scheming?” I could hear the shock in Jared’s voice.

“But he’s a good prince, and very gracious. After all, he insists on marrying me because of my scar. He has a strong sense of responsibility. That said, he can be kind of blind. Like he refuses to acknowledge his own feelings for…well, a certain girl. But some people are clueless like that.”

“A certain girl?”

“…I’d rather not go into it.”

There was an awkward silence.

“I’m surprised he likes someone else when you’re around, and still his fiancé,” Jared said.

The nerve of it! After the way he mooned over Maria last semester—for a solid two months at least!

Katerina, of course, laughed.

He flirted with her like that for almost an hour in the garden, while I listened from around the corner. She brushed him off, which is good, but I was still very angry. After he was gone, I went to give her a piece of my mind. But she refused to look guilty, and instead asked me if I had come to help her garden. Somehow I got roped into it.

“It’s okay if you’re bad,” she said, “I think it’s a Claes family trait.”

Hmph. I asked her about her conversation with Jared.

“I think he loves you very much,” she said.

“Not so much as he should,” I said. Somehow I let it all out to her, in my annoyance, even though I hated her. “He thinks I forced him into this engagement, and he’s always…well. I know he would rather not be engaged to me.”

“Really? I thought the way he spoke about the Claes family was very positive. And, he said you’re pretty. And he said being a member of the Claes family is a hard thing. And when I first arrived here, he was very kind…why would he be kind to me if he didn’t have feelings for you?”

I shrugged.

“Besides, you’re very good at this young lady thing. And if he doesn’t like Maria Campbell, I’m sure he’ll fall for you eventually! You’re his fiancée.”

It was very polite of her to say all these things. However, as Jared continues to visit and continues to ignore me, I remain unconvinced.

Yours in Distress,

The Original Katerina Claes

 

Dear Diary,

~~I~~

~~Jared~~

~~Katerina~~

I just overheard a conversation.

It was between Jared and Katerina. Jared has continued to visit us with great regularity, and for a little while I hoped that Katerina might prove to be right, and he might be visiting partly for me, or in some odd way be showing his love for me by visiting my alternate self. He continued to only speak with Katerina, though, and today asked to have tea with her alone, setting me and Keith wandering. Keith went out to that damn garden to work on a new bed of onions, but I hid behind the door and listened to hear what was so important that Jared had to talk to Katerina about it in private. I had hopes it might be about her going home; well…I don’t know, really, if I want her to go home right away anymore, since ven though she is a nuisance I have gotten used to her. But if it was about work on the portal, I wanted to know.

Instead, he began talking about me. I—I’ve never heard such a complete character assassination. He called me bossy, rude, cold-hearted, cruel, pompous, vicious, idiotic, overly aggressive…I can’t remember half the things he said. But he said a lot of things, things even he would never be cold enough to say to my face, and asked Katerina, “If the two of you are the same person in different worlds, how come you are so different?”

There was silence for a moment.

Then Katerina said, “Don’t you think you’re being kind of harsh?”

“How am I being harsh? I’m telling the truth.”

“Miss Claes and I are not completely similar, it’s true. But both of us are trying our best to survive even though we’re cast in a role that’s tough. Society expects us to be proper ladies, so we try to follow that path. But then there are so many people in our lives who are determined to hate us. Even the people we want to love and we want to love us, we know we can’t trust. Miss Claes really only wants someone to see the best in her and love her—what’s so wrong with that?”

She continued speaking, but I can’t remember everything else she said. I walked away very quickly, because I knew I’d heard something I wasn’t supposed to hear. Not just Jared’s speech, but Katerina’s too. I don’t think I was supposed to hear her say that. I don’t think I was ever supposed to hear anyone say that.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s something anyone was ever supposed to say about me.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always been trying to protect myself. I know that no one will love me. But Katerina’s right. I do try…

But she’s also wrong, because Jared was also right. I am many of the things he called me.

(Though he also called me ugly, and that’s ridiculous!)

I don’t know why Katerina said those things. Sure, she’s my counterpart, but we are not very similar. You could tell she wasn’t just defending herself. She could easily have made fun of me behind my back, and Jared would have liked her better for it. I don’t understand why Katerina said those things at all…but, stupidly, they make me rather ha _p—_

 

Dear Diary,

Apparently Katerina heard me crying.

Yes, the last time I wrote in you I was crying. That’s the reason for some of the smudging. My handwriting is not that bad!

Anyways I was embarrassed when she first came into the room, and I slammed you closed in a hurry. But she said that she knew I’d overheard what Jared said and she was sorry, and I have to admit I ended up crying even more. She gave me a hug. She has very strong arms, stronger than mine—probably as a result of all that gardening.

She gave another speech but I didn’t hear most of it. Because of the crying. Also because up close Katerina smells weirdly good, which is odd because she should smell like me but she doesn’t quite. She smells more earthy. It was actually calming, and I breathed it in to slow my heart rate.

When I stopped crying I thanked her for defending me and she just smiled and said that “We villainess girls have to stick together.” Today I feel rather like a villain after all the things Jared said and I appreciated the sentiment. But more than that, I couldn’t stop looking at her smile. How on earth does she make my mouth do things like that?

A tingle ran down my body as I thought about this. I quickly crossed my arms. This made Katerina look at me oddly. I said, “Well, thank you again,” and I smiled, but I think it came out weird, because she just seemed more nervous. She apologized—without saying for what—and ran off.

I did not chase after her because I was still feeling tingly and did not really want to move.

I have decided Katerina can stay as long as she likes. I don’t mind so much, really. Only, I will have to stop her spending so much time with Jared and Keith, and get her to spend more time with me. There are things I want to talk to her about.

Your Cheerful Confidant,

Katerina Claes


End file.
